434 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC OEOLOGY, 1902. [bull. 213. 
The soapstones and allied rocks are part of a great belt of such rocks 
which passes through northern Georgia, South Carolina, North Caro- 
lina, Virginia, and Maryland into Pennsylvania, running practically 
the entire extent of the Appalachians. Although the formation is 
thus very widespread, few of its areas are over a mile in length. 
Many of the outcrops are to be measured by a few feet, and not many 
of them cover more than an acre. 
In the first or * ' marble " group of talc deposits is found the best 
talc in the State. Talc appears in more than twenty-five places along 
the marble belt of North Carolina, but is less common in Georgia. 
The situation of these will be indicated on the maps of the Nantahala 
and Murphy folios. It occurs in the shape of lenticular bodies 
inclosed in the marble and varying in size from mere scales up to 
masses 50 feet thick or 200 feet long. Owing to its soft nature the 
talc does not withstand weathering, but readily crumbles down. It 
does not outcrop, therefore, and its position is marked on the surface 
only by a few weathered fragments. Thus it is impossible to deter- 
mine the full extent of the talc bodies except where they have been 
exposed by mining. For this same reason it is probable that many 
bodies of talc have escaped observation thus far. Some of the bodies 
are so extensive that they resemble sheets of sedimentary material. 
This is especially the case where the talc sheets grade into the adjoin- 
ing sandstone beds. They are termed "veins" by the miners, but 
have none of the characteristics of true veins. 
It is not probable that the talc was deposited in its present form as 
a sediment, although the inclosing marbles are of that character. 
The rocks of the entire region have been tremendously folded and 
compressed, and most of the original materials and minerals have 
been recrystallized. No sedimentary deposits of talc are known in 
the Appalachians, so that it is probable that the constituents of the 
talc existed in the adjacent sedimentary rocks in some other form. 
Some of the beds of the marble formation now contain a considerable 
percentage of magnesia in the form of the carbonate. It is probable 
that the source of the magnesium carbonates and that of the hydrous 
silicates are the same, both being derived from the materials of an 
original sedimentary dolomite. The development of the talc in the 
scales which are disseminated through the mass of the marble is thus 
easily accounted for. The concentration of the talc into lenses and 
sheets is, however, difficult to understand. Some of the lenses are 
barely twice as long and broad as they are thick, while others are 
very much attenuated and form thin sheets, as already stated. The 
lenses appear to be somewhat drawn out, and pass into the marble 
with very thin edges. 
The color of the talc varies considerably in the different lenses and 
sheets. By far the greater part of it is dull white. Of this color are 
